Fonio (Digitaria exilis), known as the "grain of life," is a vital food security crop grown by smallholder farmers across West Africa. Renowned for its short maturity period of 6-8 weeks, fonio provides essential harvests during periods of food scarcity. Its nutritional value, drought resilience, and ability to thrive on marginal soils make it a crucial staple in the region. However, fonio’s yield, averaging less than 0.5 metric tons per hectare, remains significantly lower than major cereals, due to minimal breeding efforts aimed at enhancing agronomic traits. In this study, we generated a high-quality chromosome-resolved, tetraploid (2n=4x=36) genome of a fonio line (PI 349688) available through the United States Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN). Time-of-day (TOD) expression profiling revealed sub-genome dominance in pathways associated with key agronomic traits that were also identified in a selective sweep analysis across a panel of 90 fonio accessions that originated from 21 different villages over five regions of Senegal representing eight distinct ethnic groups. Leveraging phenotyping across 14 key agronomic traits, we identified genotype-trait associations for plant height, tillering and panicle yield with genes involved in the circadian clock, light signaling and plant architecture. We demonstrated that fonio is amenable to transformation and gene editing, as evidenced by successful CRISPR-Cas9 modification of the Green Revolution gene REDUCED HEIGHT 1 (RHT1), resulting in lines with increased height, vegetative area, and enhanced tillering. Collectively, the genomic resources developed here pave new avenues for molecular breeding and trait discovery, laying a robust foundation for accelerating fonio improvement to bolster food security, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture in West Africa.

The effects of drought stress can be devastating to crop production worldwide. A grand challenge facing agriculture is development of crop varieties with improved drought resilience through breeding or biotechnology. To accelerate this, a mechanistic understanding is needed of the regulatory networks underlying drought response in crop genomes and the genetic elements that modulate them. Here, we explore the regulatory landscape of sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] in response to controlled-environment drought stress. Sorghum is a C4 cereal crop with innate drought resilience. To define molecular signatures of drought response, we mapped genome-wide chromatin accessibility using an Assay for Transposase Accessible Chromatin by sequencing and analyzed parallel transcriptional profiles in drought-stressed sorghum shoot and root tissues. Drought-responsive changes in accessibility were largely in proximal promoters of differentially expressed genes and also in distal regions. Data were integrated to infer gene network connections and cis -regulatory modules underlying drought response and the transcription factors that control them. Inspection of pan-genomic data and phenotyping across sorghum diversity revealed variation in genomic signatures that associated with water use efficiency. Our analyses provide drought-inducible regulatory modules in sorghum that can be leveraged for fine-tuning responses to stress, mining for advantageous alleles, and translating across species.### Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

Plants with facultative crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) maximize performance through utilizing C3 or C4 photosynthesis under ideal conditions while temporally switching to CAM under water stress (drought). While genome-scale analyses of constitutive CAM plants suggest that time of day networks are shifted, or phased to the evening compared to C3, little is known for how the shift from C3 to CAM networks is modulated in drought induced CAM. Here we generate a draft genome for the drought-induced CAM-cycling species Sedum album. Through parallel sampling in well-watered (C3) and drought (CAM) conditions, we uncover a massive rewiring of time of day expression and a CAM and stress-specific network. The core circadian genes are expanded in S. album and under CAM induction, core clock genes either change phase or amplitude. While the core clock cis-elements are conserved in S. album, we uncover a set of novel CAM and stress specific cis-elements consistent with our finding of rewired co-expression networks. We identified shared elements between constitutive CAM and CAM-cycling species and expression patterns unique to CAM-cycling S. album. Together these results demonstrate that drought induced CAM-cycling photosynthesis evolved through the mobilization of a stress-specific, time of day network, and not solely the phasing of existing C3 networks. These results will inform efforts to engineer water use efficiency into crop plants for growth on marginal land.

Ongoing elimination efforts have altered the global distribution of Onchocerca volvulus, the agent of river blindness, and further population restructuring is expected as efforts continue. Therefore, a better understanding of population genetic processes and their effect on biogeography is needed to support elimination goals. We describe O. volvulus genome variation in 27 isolates from the early 1990s (before widespread mass treatment) from four distinct locales: Ecuador, Uganda, the West African forest and the West African savanna. We observed genetic substructuring between Ecuador and West Africa and between the West African forest and savanna bioclimes, with evidence of unidirectional gene flow from savanna to forest strains. We identified forest:savanna-discriminatory genomic regions and report a set of ancestry informative loci that can be used to differentiate between forest, savanna and admixed isolates, which has not previously been possible. We observed mito-nuclear discordance possibly stemming from incomplete lineage sorting. The catalogue of the nuclear, mitochondrial and endosymbiont DNA variants generated in this study will support future basic and translational onchocerciasis research, with particular relevance for ongoing control programmes, and boost efforts to characterize drug, vaccine and diagnostic targets.

The bovine lungworm, Dictyocaulus viviparus (order Strongylida), is an important parasite of livestock that causes substantial economic and production losses worldwide. Here we report the draft genome, variome and developmental transcriptome of D. viviparus . The genome (161 Mb) is smaller than those of related bursate nematodes and encodes fewer proteins (14,171 total). In the first genome-wide assessment of genomic variation in any parasitic nematode, we found a high degree of sequence variability in proteins predicted to be involved host-parasite interactions. Next, we used extensive RNA sequence data to track gene transcription across the life cycle of D. viviparus and identified genes that might be important in nematode development and parasitism. Finally, we predicted genes that could be vital in host-parasite interactions, genes that could serve as drug targets and putative RNAi effectors with a view to developing functional genomic tools. This extensive, well-curated dataset should provide a basis for developing new anthelmintics, vaccines and improved diagnostic tests and serve as a platform for future investigations of drug resistance and epidemiology of the bovine lungworm and related nematodes.

Helminth. net (http://www.helminth.net) is the new moniker for a collection of databases: Nematode. net and Trematode. net. Within this collection we provide services and resources for parasitic roundworms (nematodes) and flatworms (trematodes), collectively known as helminths. For over a decade we have provided resources for studying nematodes via our veteran site Nematode. net (http://nematode.net). In this article, (i) we provide an update on the expansions of Nematode. net that hosts omics data from 84 species and provides advanced search tools to the broad scientific community so that data can be mined in a useful and user-friendly manner and (ii) we introduce Trematode. net, a site dedicated to the dissemination of data from flukes, flatworm parasites of the class Trematoda, phylum Platyhelminthes. Trematode. net is an independent component of Helminth. net and currently hosts data from 16 species, with information ranging from genomic, functional genomic data, enzymatic pathway utilization to microbiome changes associated with helminth infections. The databases' interface, with a sophisticated query engine as a backbone, is intended to allow users to search for multi-factorial combinations of species' omics properties. This report describes updates to Nematode. net since its last description in NAR, 2012, and also introduces and presents its new sibling site, Trematode. net.

Many infectious diseases caused by eukaryotic pathogens have a devastating, long-term impact on animal health and welfare. Hundreds of millions of animals are affected by parasitic nematodes of the order Strongylida. Unlocking the molecular biology of representatives of this order, and understanding nematode–host interactions, drug resistance and disease using advanced technologies could lead to entirely new ways of controlling the diseases that they cause. Oesophagostomum dentatum (nodule worm; superfamily Strongyloidea) is an economically important strongylid nematode parasite of swine worldwide. The present article reports recent advances made in biology and animal biotechnology through the draft genome and developmental transcriptome of O. dentatum, in order to support biological research of this and related parasitic nematodes as well as the search for new and improved interventions. This first genome of any member of the Strongyloidea is 443 Mb in size and predicted to encode 25,291 protein-coding genes. Here, we review the dynamics of transcription throughout the life cycle of O. dentatum, describe double-stranded RNA interference (RNAi) machinery and infer molecules involved in development and reproduction, and in inducing or modulating immune responses or disease. The secretome predicted for O. dentatum is particularly rich in peptidases linked to interactions with host tissues and/or feeding activity, and a diverse array of molecules likely involved in immune responses. This research progress provides an important resource for future comparative genomic and molecular biological investigations as well as for biotechnological research toward new anthelmintics, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

Many infectious diseases caused by eukaryotic pathogens have a devastating, long-term impact on animal health and welfare. Hundreds of millions of animals are affected by parasitic nematodes of the order Strongylida. Unlocking the molecular biology of representatives of this order, and understanding nematode–host interactions, drug resistance and disease using advanced technologies could lead to entirely new ways of controlling the diseases that they cause. Oesophagostomum dentatum (nodule worm; superfamily Strongyloidea) is an economically important strongylid nematode parasite of swine worldwide. The present article reports recent advances made in biology and animal biotechnology through the draft genome and developmental transcriptome of O. dentatum, in order to support biological research of this and related parasitic nematodes as well as the search for new and improved interventions. This first genome of any member of the Strongyloidea is 443Mb in size and predicted to encode 25,291 protein-coding genes. Here, we review the dynamics of transcription throughout the life cycle of O. dentatum, describe double-stranded RNA interference (RNAi) machinery and infer molecules involved in development and reproduction, and in inducing or modulating immune responses or disease. The secretome predicted for O. dentatum is particularly rich in peptidases linked to interactions with host tissues and/or feeding activity, and a diverse array of molecules likely involved in immune responses. This research progress provides an important resource for future comparative genomic and molecular biological investigations as well as for biotechnological research toward new anthelmintics, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

WormBase (http://www.wormbase.org/) is a highly curated resource dedicated to supporting research using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. With an electronic history predating the World Wide Web, WormBase contains information ranging from the sequence and phenotype of individual alleles to genome-wide studies generated using next-generation sequencing technologies. In recent years, we have expanded the contents to include data on additional nematodes of agricultural and medical significance, bringing the knowledge of C. elegans to bear on these systems and providing support for underserved research communities. Manual curation of the primary literature remains a central focus of the WormBase project, providing users with reliable, up-to-date and highly cross-linked information. In this update, we describe efforts to organize the original atomized and highly contextualized curated data into integrated syntheses of discrete biological topics. Next, we discuss our experiences coping with the vast increase in available genome sequences made possible through next-generation sequencing platforms. Finally, we describe some of the features and tools of the new WormBase Web site that help users better find and explore data of interest.

Since its release in 2000, WormBase (http://www.wormbase.org) has grown from a small resource focusing on a single species and serving a dedicated research community, to one now spanning 15 species essential to the broader biomedical and agricultural research fields. To enhance the rate of curation, we have automated the identification of key data in the scientific literature and use similar methodology for data extraction. To ease access to the data, we are collaborating with journals to link entities in research publications to their report pages at WormBase. To facilitate discovery, we have added new views of the data, integrated large-scale datasets and expanded descriptions of models for human disease. Finally, we have introduced a dramatic overhaul of the WormBase website for public beta testing. Designed to balance complexity and usability, the new site is species-agnostic, highly customizable, and interactive. Casual users and developers alike will be able to leverage the public RESTful application programming interface (API) to generate custom data mining solutions and extensions to the site. We report on the growth of our database and on our work in keeping pace with the growing demand for data, efforts to anticipate the requirements of users and new collaborations with the larger science community.

The Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequence was published over a decade ago; this was the first published genome of a multi-cellular organism and now the WormBase project has had a decade of experience in curating this genome's sequence and gene structures. In one of its roles as a central repository for nematode biology, WormBase continues to refine the gene structure annotations using sequence similarity and other computational methods, as well as information from the literature- and community-submitted annotations. We describe the various methods of gene structure curation that have been tried by WormBase and the problems associated with each of them. We also describe the current strategy for gene structure curation, and introduce the WormBase 'curation tool', which integrates different data sources in order to identify new and correct gene structures. Database URL: http://www.wormbase.org/.

WormBase (http://www.wormbase.org) is a central data repository for nematode biology. Initially created as a service to the Caenorhabditis elegans research field, WormBase has evolved into a powerful research tool in its own right. In the past 2 years, we expanded WormBase to include the complete genomic sequence, gene predictions and orthology assignments from a range of related nematodes. This comparative data enrich the C. elegans data with improved gene predictions and a better understanding of gene function. In turn, they bring the wealth of experimental knowledge of C. elegans to other systems of medical and agricultural importance. Here, we describe new species and data types now available at WormBase. In addition, we detail enhancements to our curatorial pipeline and website infrastructure to accommodate new genomes and an extensive user base.

WormBase (www.wormbase.org) is the major publicly available database of information about Caenorhabditis elegans, an important system for basic biological and biomedical research. Derived from the initial ACeDB database of C. elegans genetic and sequence information, WormBase now includes the genomic, anatomical and functional information about C. elegans, other Caenorhabditis species and other nematodes. As such, it is a crucial resource not only for C. elegans biologists but the larger biomedical and bioinformatics communities. Coverage of core areas of C. elegans biology will allow the biomedical community to make full use of the results of intensive molecular genetic analysis and functional genomic studies of this organism. Improved search and display tools, wider cross-species comparisons and extended ontologies are some of the features that will help scientists extend their research and take advantage of other nematode species genome sequences.

WormBase (http://wormbase.org), a model organism database for Caenorhabditis elegans and other related nematodes, continues to evolve and expand. Over the past year WormBase has added new data on C.elegans, including data on classical genetics, cell biology and functional genomics; expanded the annotation of closely related nematodes with a new genome browser for Caenorhabditis remanei; and deployed new hardware for stronger performance. Several existing datasets including phenotype descriptions and RNAi experiments have seen a large increase in new content. New datasets such as the C.remanei draft assembly and annotations, the Vancouver Fosmid library and TEC-RED 5' end sites are now available as well. Access to and searching WormBase has become more dependable and flexible via multiple mirror sites and indexing through Google.

Escherichia coli is a model laboratory bacterium, a species that is widely distributed in the environment, as well as a mutualist and pathogen in its human hosts. As such, E. coli represents an attractive organism to study how environment impacts microbial genome structure and function. Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) must adapt to life in several microbial communities in the human body, and has a complex life cycle in the bladder when it causes acute or recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI). Several studies designed to identify virulence factors have focused on genes that are uniquely represented in UPEC strains, whereas the role of genes that are common to all E. coli has received much less attention. Here we describe the complete 5,065,741-bp genome sequence of a UPEC strain recovered from a patient with an acute bladder infection and compare it with six other finished E. coli genome sequences. We searched 3,470 ortholog sets for genes that are under positive selection only in UPEC strains. Our maximum likelihood-based analysis yielded 29 genes involved in various aspects of cell surface structure, DNA metabolism, nutrient acquisition, and UTI. These results were validated by resequencing a subset of the 29 genes in a panel of 50 urinary, periurethral, and rectal E. coli isolates from patients with UTI. These studies outline a computational approach that may be broadly applicable for studying strain-specific adaptation and pathogenesis in other bacteria.

WormBase (http://wormbase.org), the public database for genomics and biology of Caenorhabditis elegans, has been restructured for stronger performance and expanded for richer biological content. Performance was improved by accelerating the loading of central data pages such as the omnibus Gene page, by rationalizing internal data structures and software for greater portability, and by making the Genome Browser highly customizable in how it views and exports genomic subsequences. Arbitrarily complex, user-specified queries arenowpossible through Textpresso (for all available literature) and through WormMart (for most genomic data). Biological content was enriched by reconciling all available cDNA and expressed sequence tag data with gene predictions, clarifying single nucleotide polymorphism and RNAi sites, and summarizing known functions for most genes studied in this organism.

Human chromosome 2 is unique to the human lineage in being the product of a head-to-head fusion of two intermediate-sized ancestral chromosomes. Chromosome 4 has received attention primarily related to the search for the Huntington's disease gene, but also for genes associated with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, polycystic kidney disease and a form of muscular dystrophy. Here we present approximately 237 million base pairs of sequence for chromosome 2, and 186 million base pairs for chromosome 4, representing more than 99.6% of their euchromatic sequences. Our initial analyses have identified 1,346 protein-coding genes and 1,239 pseudogenes on chromosome 2, and 796 protein-coding genes and 778 pseudogenes on chromosome 4. Extensive analyses confirm the underlying construction of the sequence, and expand our understanding of the structure and evolution of mammalian chromosomes, including gene deserts, segmental duplications and highly variant regions.